This invention relates to the field of telephone service provisioning. More particularly, a system and methods are provided for automatically provisioning a user""s telephone service.
Traditionally, when a telephone user or subscriber desires a change to his or her telephone servicexe2x80x94to add or remove a service featurexe2x80x94significant human intervention is required to implement the change. In particular, when a subscriber requests a change through an entity other than the subscriber""s actual telephone service provider (e.g., a local telephone company or LEC (Local Exchange Carrier)), some human interaction is required between the entity and the service provider.
The more human activity that is required to effect the change, the greater chance there is for delay and error. For example, the subscriber may have to make one call to a company representative to order the change, another call to ascertain the order status, yet another call if the change is not made as requested, etc. In addition, the entity receiving the order may have to manually relay the order to the subscriber""s service provider, the service provider may have to contact the entity to obtain additional details of the change or report a status, the entity may have to re-submit the order if it is incomplete or otherwise could not be completed by the service provider, a conflicting telephone service feature may be active (e.g., call forwarding may already be configured to forward the subscriber""s calls to a number other than the number indicated in a new request), an LOA (Letter of Agency) may be needed so that a service provider can act on the subscriber""s behalf, manually entered data may have been entered incorrectly, etc.
In one embodiment of the invention a system and methods are provided for automatically provisioning a subscriber""s telephone service to add, change or remove a service feature. When the subscriber requests a change, the necessary details to effect the change are gathered and an electronic order is generated. The order is placed in a proper format for the user""s local telephone service provider and is electronically communicated to the service provider. A status is returned from the service provider and may be communicated to the subscriber, may be used to initiate a replacement order if additional information is needed, may cause a billing record to be generated, and may be used to update a database of subscriber orders.
More specifically, in a present embodiment of the invention a request to add a telephone service feature (e.g., a basic service element or complementary network service feature) is received at a telephone server, network server or other entry point into the automated provisioning system. For example, a person may wish to sign up for a centralized voice mail service, which requires call forwarding to be added to the subscriber""s existing telephone service. An order is generated and saved in a database, the status of which will be updated as the order is processed. A generic order object is created and placed in an export queue for the subscriber""s telephone service provider (e.g., a local exchange carrier, a wireless carrier). The generic order object may identify the responsible service provider, specify a suitable forward-to number (e.g., to which the forwarded calls are to be delivered for recording), etc. A transport module configured to interface with the service provider then converts the generic order object into a specific order object having a format compatible with the service provider""s system, and then forwards the object to the provider. A response is received (which may indicate the expected date of completion for a successful order or a reason for failure for an unsuccessful order), the database is updated accordingly and the status is communicated to the subscriber. If the order was unsuccessful, a process may be initiated to resubmit it, which may require additional information from the subscriber and/or intervention by a customer service operator, depending on the reason for the failure. In one embodiment of the invention, the system may test the user""s service to ensure that the order was successful or determine that the provisioning was successful by detecting use of the provisioned feature.